


Brilliance

by KoibitoDream



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, implied charachter death, knock knock it's tragedy, let me push you into the pit of despair, so you all think soulmates are fun and games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 15:04:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7176749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoibitoDream/pseuds/KoibitoDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So I heard you like them Soulmates AU.</p><p>And here I am, marking my 20th Haikyuu!! fic with this. Oh, dear.</p></blockquote>





	Brilliance

Everyone ever talks about how amazing it is to find one's soulmate. How complete one feels once they connect. No one ever mentions how that process takes time. How people tend to make it a competition like everything else, how one cannot sleep at night, wondering what went wrong, why haven't they found them yet. No one speaks of how heavy thoughts and doubts affect both of you, even if you haven't met yet. No one tells you that outburst you can't explain may be your soulmate's feelings suppressed.

Kageyama Tobio found himself in this exact predicament.

He didn't pay it much thought, the first time something happened. All he felt was irritation, something nagging from within, unable to place a finger on it, with a strong sense that he needs to do something, anything, to right a wrong he knows nothing about. Then comes a wave of rage and he finds himself yelling, searching for something he cannot find. Seeking an answer for a question unknown.

And then that rage has ebbed, replaced by a sea of despair.

His soulmark has a shape of a crown, settled between his shoulder blades, and he feels like something cold and hard surrounds it, deep beneath his skin. He feels cold, all the time. He cannot get rid of that feeling, no matter what he tries. Train harder, train longer, devote to a cause, take that off your mind. _It doesn't work._ He cannot sleep at night because the cold seems to seep even deeper in his bones, right into his soul. He has nightmares he cannot recollect, but they still wear him down. He thinks he may be losing his mind.

And so he passes through middle school, not a bit clearer as to what is wrong.

Maybe there isn't anything wrong. Maybe it's just him.

 

_Somewhere in Sendai, a certain Tsukishima Kei finds himself thinking the same._

 

A strange business, soulmates are. He's seen Sawamura Daichi and Sugawara Koushi. Nishinoya Yuu and Azumane Asahi. Tanaka Ryuunosuke and Ennoshita Chikara. Why that one was a surprise to many, he does not know. The soulmate principle is easy enough to understand. So he thinks, anyway.

What one might suppress, the other might show. What one feels strongly, the other will know.

His soulmark is a fossil, inked out bones, forming an arch on his back. It looks complete to him and he wonders if he does not have one. A soulmate, that is. His friends and family assure him he does. Just because a mark looks complete, doesn't mean it is.

The colour of the mark sometimes changes, depending on either mood. One must feel really strongly about something to make the colour change and Tsukishima is strangely thankful for that. He has a rather large mark on his back and it would be embarrassing if his mark were to change colours so rapidly as Hinata's soulmate's mark. That person feels strongly about everything and his soulmate complained that his mark is an ever-changing colour show.

Tsukishima's remains ever the same. Dark tones with the subtlest changes in hue he's seen.

_At least you know it's not Hinata_ , Yamaguchi once said, with a smile. His marks were also relatively stable, he had two, both going down his arms. The shy, meek Yamaguchi he's known is shy and meek no more. Seems his soulmates do him good, who ever they are. He likes to think he's helped a bit, too. Friends and family equally matter.

But there's another thing people don't tell.

Meeting one's soulmate is not always flowery backgrounds, a sudden gust of wind, a firework going off in one's heart or opera's in the head.

_Yamaguchi hears a tune, though, the moment he and his soulmate meet. Hinata feels light-headed and weak. Tanaka and Ennoshita had a long moment of silence. Yachi says she saw a flower in her head._

Sometimes, that cutesy scenario is simply not the case.

Let's take his, for example.

 

He's had some history with his brother. That stung more than it should have, he thinks. He doesn't like to admit that he had so much trust in someone. Bonds only serve to do just that. Bind. Render him still. Impede the movement and his free will. So when someone as stiff as him has to think about his own soulmate, he really rather not. He doesn't like the idea of being practically forced into something like that. To have someone know his soul, in and out.

So when Kageyama Tobio and Tsukishima Kei finally meet, it does not go as well.

There are no fireworks, no winds, no flowers, no pleasant tingles, no quickening of pulse, no light headedness.

_Their reaction is so much stronger than what mere word could describe and neither of them is prepared._

A silent storm rises between them, all their turbulent thoughts collide in a battle of will. They pass through the corridors, claiming all attention because the attraction between them, confused for animosity, creates a strong field between them and all around, pulling like a magnet. Kei feels the sparks and surge of electricity where their shoulders brush, where their hips touch when blocking on the court, every look sparks a reaction, every word lost in the futile attempt to make a connection. He doesn't understand, none of them do, that the connection already existed, currently flooded with so many emotions pouring out freely, without control.

 

Then on day, between something snaps.

 

The flood of emotions eases.

 

_Kei feels as if someone dipped his heart in liquid fire, burning away all the cold and insecure within him, latched onto his soul for so long he thought he was born with it. The heavy mush was no longer there, and he felt like he could breathe freely for the first time in his life._

 

_Tobio looked like he felt the same._

 

_The crown on Tobio's back melts into another mark, black colour washing into white._

_Kei has no qualms as to what the missing piece in his mark is – he always thought his mark's ribcage looked incomplete._

 

 

_All anyone ever tells you is how you gain a new brilliance in life._

_They never tell you what happens when that brilliance goes dim._

 

 

He takes a deep breath.

The court is full.

They need one more point.

It's Tobio's serve.

The ball lifts in the air, parting with his fingers, only briefly in the air before he sends it over the net.

 

_When the ball hits the floor on the other side, he doesn't see it._

_When the crowd of people loses their shit, he cannot hear it._

_When he collapses where he stands, he doesn't feel it._

 

The warmth recedes, the brilliance dulls, something's _so very wrong._

 

_Someone took Kei away._

_He went to find him._

 

**Author's Note:**

> So I heard you like them Soulmates AU.
> 
> And here I am, marking my 20th Haikyuu!! fic with this. Oh, dear.


End file.
